Talk:Washington Senators (1891-1899)

Just a stupid theory here. As I'm working on tracking team's histories, I get the feeling that some of these teams' histories extend farther back than what is being seen in MLB history. For instance I get the feeling, that in some weird shape or form that the Washington Senators date back to 1884 as the Washington Nationals in the Union Association. Unfortunately this is only theory. The connections: The Nationals played ball in the Union Association for the entire season. Like their fellow teams, Kansas City and Milwaukee, the team doesn't fold, but decides not to continue playing in the reformatted Western League. Instead opting to play the 1885 season in the Eastern League. The following season the team returns to the majors, this time in the National League. Why Mike Scanlon's name is listed with the 3 Washington teams. Following the 1889 season, the team is removed from the NL and they go and play in the Atlantic Association. The next year the team plays in the American Association's last year of existence before making a 2nd go in the NL. I'm probably grasping at straws here. Will try and find actual links. - Yuriy 43.

It's not really a stupid theory. That's how things worked in the 1860s to 1890s. Teams were "sporting clubs" (a bit like what is the norm in Europe these days) and played from year to year in whatever league was available and willing to host them. They were independent entities and not subsidiaries of a larger organization (e.g. MLB) as is the case today. So, as organizations, it is likely that you could trace some kinship between the various teams you mention, for example by looking at the elected executive officers for the different clubs: there is likely to be strong overlap between those teams. But, the caveat is that when considering them as major league teams, historians have tended to be more strict about determining when a team actually started its existence and have considered earlier minor league entries to be different entities. --Philippe (talk) 02:53, 20 August 2014 (EDT)

Okay. Thanks.- Yuriy 43